


the elusive spouse

by nimh



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Established Relationship, M/M, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-19 01:30:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11302944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nimh/pseuds/nimh
Summary: Sunggyu is the boss from hell. He’s got a wedding ring, though, so someone must like him.





	the elusive spouse

**one**

Jiyeon loves her job. Really! It’s got good pay, it’s just down the street from her apartment, and all of her coworkers are very nice. They all bond over the mediocre coffee machine and scold Sungyeol for stealing people’s staplers when his runs out of staples, and it’s great. Everyone gets along well. Except—

“Did you think the budget would write itself?”

Jiyeon cringes. It sounds like Jinhwan’s day is about to get a lot worse.

Kim Sunggyu is, in many ways, a great boss. He’s efficient, punctual, and driven, always encouraging his employees to work their best and their hardest. His people skills, though, leave a lot to be desired.

“The meeting is in less than half an hour, Jinhwan; if that spreadsheet is not completed and emailed to me in the next fifteen minutes, we’re going to need to have a much less pleasant conversation.”

For Jinhwan’s sake, Jiyeon hopes that the budget is at least partly done; fifteen minutes isn’t a lot of time. She turns her attention back to her own computer, focusing on an email she’s writing to someone in marketing. She’s had her own fair share of scoldings from the boss, and she’d really like to avoid getting told off for making a typo (it’s happened before, she CC’ed Sunggyu in an email and then got yelled at for having a comma splice, or something).

A chair rolls out of the cubicle to her right; it’s Soojung. “You think we should give him a snack to make him feel better? I was gonna go grab some popcorn from the vending machine.”

“Nah, I think it’s better to let him focus on the budget for now,” Jiyeon replies. “But get me a soda, will you?”

Soojung nods and gets up to fetch their snacks. She’s been a victim of Sunggyu’s wrath, too—everyone in the department has. It’s something else they joke about, but not in the break room where Sunggyu might hear; it’s a topic for nights when they go out for drinks, away from the office.

It was on one of those nights that Jiyeon first heard about Sunggyu’s spouse. Jinhwan had been the one to bring it up.

(“I can’t believe he’s married.”

“Sunggyu’s married?”

“Yeah, he has a ring. Gold.”)

And when Jiyeon had glanced at Sunggyu’s hand the next day at work, Jinhwan had been correct; on Sunggyu’s left ring finger was a solid gold band.

(“Who would marry him?”

“I have a theory,” says Soojung. “He and his wife got married young, but then he started spending too much time at work, so they drifted apart and got a divorce. Sunggyu still wears the ring as a reminder of what they had, but now? What’s left of his heart belongs to the company.”

“Well that’s rather dramatic.”)

They all have their own theories, and Soojung’s isn’t even the most exciting. Dasom has more than once divulged her musings about Sunggyu’s marriage; she claims he eloped with the CEO’s identical twin sister, only to discover that the CEO did not have a twin sister and was actually the one Sunggyu married all along. Although it’s one of the more ridiculous stories, it’s similar to a lot of the others in that it somehow involves Sunggyu marrying the company. For a lot of them, that’s the only way they can wrap their mind around Sunggyu being married; they’ve only ever seen him committed to his work.

Sungyeol, though, has a slightly different theory.

(“Sunggyu doesn’t have a wife.”

“But the—”

“He has a husband.”

“How do you know?”

“Trust me; as a gay man myself, I know about these kinds of things.”)

Jiyeon doesn’t really know what to think. She’s never interacted with Sunggyu for any reason other than work, so of course she doesn’t know what he’s like outside the office. It’s not like he ever joins them for drinks (they’ve offered a couple of times, but he always declines).

With one last look over the email, Jiyeon sends it. Someone’s footsteps come down the aisle behind her and she turns around, hoping it’s Soojung with her soda. Instead it’s some guy she doesn’t recognize, probably someone from another department. She sighs and looks back at the screen; there’s a new email in her inbox, but not a response to what she just sent (it’s probably too soon for that, anyway). Instead it’s from her friend Mijoo in HR, asking if she can bring some files to Sunggyu for her. As reluctant as Jiyeon is to go into Sunggyu’s office so soon after watching him yell at Jinhwan, she doesn’t want to make Mijoo’s life any more stressful than it already is (she’s been working extra hours lately but hasn’t said why; Jiyeon’s worried).

She scribbles a quick note on a post-it before leaving her desk to go to Mijoo’s office, which is one floor below her own. The building’s tall enough and busy enough that using the elevator to go down one floor is bound to be slower than taking the stairs, so to the stairwell Jiyeon goes.

Mijoo’s not at her desk when she arrives, but there’s a marked file there that Jiyeon knows must be for Sunggyu. She picks it up and takes it back upstairs with her, pausing by her own desk to see if Soojung’s back yet (she’s not—probably busy flirting with Howon at the front desk).

Sunggyu’s door is closed, as usual. Knocking is highly recommended; Jiyeon doesn’t think she’s ever seen someone enter Sunggyu’s office without knocking first (it’s probably a death wish). There are two potential outcomes when it comes to knocking on Sunggyu’s door: the first is that he says “come in,” and then you go in and do whatever it is you came to do. The second is that he says “not now,” and then you return to your own desk and hope that whatever it is you need to talk to him about is not important.

When Jiyeon knocks on Sunggyu’s door this time, though, it opens immediately. Inside is Sunggyu, sitting at his desk (as expected), and whoever it is that just opened the door for her. She recognizes him as the man she saw earlier.

“Woohyun, you can’t just let people into my office—”

“What’s stopping them from coming in anyway?”

“Their respect for me as their boss.”

The guy—Woohyun—laughs like he thinks it’s ridiculous that anyone would be intimidated by Sunggyu. Jiyeon’s never seen someone treat Sunggyu so casually, and she wonders how this Woohyun guy is still employed here after talking to Sunggyu like that. But then she looks down at his hand still resting on the door handle, and—

He’s wearing a gold ring. The same as Sunggyu’s.

Jiyeon thinks her eyes go a little bigger than they should, and she looks back up to see her boss. His face is sort of strained—embarrassed, maybe? It’s an expression she’s never seen on him before. It’s a bit of an awkward situation all around, so she moves forward to give him the file.

“This is from Mijoo in HR.”

“Thank you, Jiyeon. You can go now.”

She bows slightly and turns to leave.

“Nice to meet you, Jiyeon!” calls Woohyun as the door closes behind her.

 _Oh my god_ , she thinks, _Sungyeol was right_.

 

 

 

**two**

As far as Mondays go, this one isn’t too bad. Dasom’s been pretty satisfied with her morning so far; her toaster didn’t shock her when she went to put the bread in, her roommate had actually cleaned, and the walk to work was sunny but not too hot. She walks into the building in a good mood.

There’s a guy she doesn’t know standing at the front desk, trying to get the receptionist to do something for him.

“Can you call him? His name is Kim Sunggyu. Tell him it’s Woohyun.”

Dasom pauses at hearing her boss’ name. “You need to talk to Sunggyu?”

The man turns to her. “Yeah, he asked me to drop off some files.” He is, in fact, holding a couple of folders. “Do you know him? I don’t work here, so I don’t have ID; would you be able to give these to him?”

The receptionist interrupts them. “He said you can go up,” he says, hanging up the phone. “And good morning, Dasom.”

“Good morning, Howon.” She turns back to the other guy. “You still want me to take that for you?”

He shakes his head. “I might as well go see him, since I’m cleared anyway.”

Dasom thinks the guy must not know Sunggyu very well if he’s turning down a chance to avoid his office, but she shrugs; at least she doesn’t have to do it.

They enter the elevator together, and the man keeps talking. “Do you work with Sunggyu?” he asks.

“He’s my boss.”

“How is he?”

“Honestly? Very good at getting things done, not very good with people.”

“Sounds like him.”

Dasom’s surprised; she had assumed this guy wasn’t familiar with Sunggyu because of his willingness to meet with him, but apparently that’s not the case.

“May I ask how you know him?”

“He’s my husband.”

 _What_.

“ _You’re_ Sunggyu’s husband?”

The man looks taken aback by her sudden change in demeanor. “Yes?”

“Damn it. I bet Sungyeol twenty bucks that you were a woman.”

“Ah. I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that’s a bet you’re going to have to lose.”

The elevator door opens and they’re about to part ways when Dasom grabs his wrist. He turns to her, surprised.

“If you see a very tall man in this department,” she says, “Do not tell him who you are. I can still win.”

Sunggyu’s husband nods wordlessly, mouth hanging open slightly, and she drops his wrist.

Now that she knows she can’t win fairly, all she has to do is hire an actress and convince Sunggyu to play along. Which might cost more than the twenty dollars that the bet is worth, but proving Sungyeol wrong is priceless.

 

 

 

**three**

Out of everyone in their department, Jinhwan is the newest; he’s been employed at the company for less than a year. Still, he wonders if it’s time to quit. The spike in his anxiety whenever his boss approaches is probably really bad for his health, and the work stress is starting to interrupt his sleep schedule.

On good days, he keeps it together. He does his work, Sunggyu ignores him, everything is fine. On bad days, everything goes to hell.

Today is not a good day.

For starters, his alarm doesn’t go off when it was supposed to. Instead of waking up to his favorite song, he wakes up to his phone ringing.

“Hello?” he mumbles, voice still thick with sleep.

“Jinhwan!” It’s Jiyeon, from work, he realizes. “Where are you? Sunggyu’s looking for you and no one has seen you at your desk yet, are you okay?”

He doesn’t understand why anyone would be at the office this early until he looks at his clock—

“Holy shit!”

“What happened? Jinhwan?”

“My alarm didn’t go off! I’ll be there in twenty minutes, see you later!” He hangs up and drops the phone, sprawling out of bed towards his closet. He doesn’t have time to shower or brush his teeth or eat breakfast or anything, really, but he does need to get dressed and get to work _now_ because if he doesn’t he’s so fired.

Fifteen minutes later, he’s drops into his desk chair, thankful that his apartment is only a couple of blocks away. But his relief does not last long.

“Kim Jinhwan—”

The thing is, Jinhwan thinks he’s a decent person; he’s never done anything that would land him in jail or majorly disappoint his parents; he’s never betrayed one of his best friends or killed someone or started any wars. So obviously it must have been terrible deed from one of his past lives that’s led him to be on the receiving end of Sunggyu’s most horrifying and degrading tirade yet.

When Sunggyu finally leaves (huffing and puffing), Jinhwan drops his head onto his desk. His eyes are a little wet, which is embarrassing, but all things considered, it could have gone worse.

After all, he still has his job.

Someone comes into his cubicle before he’s really ready to face any of his coworkers, and he looks up to tell them he’s fine (even if he isn’t), but it’s not who he expects.

“Sunggyu get to you?”

Jinhwan lets out a watery laugh. “Yeah, more than usual,” he says, voice more uneven than he would like it to be. “Who are you?”

“Woohyun,” the guy says, reaching a hand out. Jinhwan takes it, but he’s still kind of confused about who Woohyun is and why he’s talking to him. “Jinhwan. Nice to meet you.”

Woohyun chuckles. “If only it were under better circumstances. What’d he get mad about this time?”

Jinhwan wonders if Woohyun is someone from HR sent to collect complaints about Sunggyu. As much as he dislikes Sunggyu, he can’t deny that the man gets things done; he doesn’t really want to throw him under the bus. “My alarm didn’t go off, so I accidentally slept in. I was late, missed an important meeting,” he shrugs. “It was my mistake, I set the clock for PM instead of AM.”

“Wait, so all that was because you messed up your alarm by accident?”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“What the hell? I thought maybe you tried to pull a prank on him or something, but that’s it? Excuse me for a moment.”

Woohyun leaves the cubicle, looking a bit angry himself. If he really is from HR, then Sunggyu might have some trouble. Jinhwan hadn’t really said anything other than the truth, though, so he doesn’t feel too guilty. He boots up his computer to finally start his work for the day.

Because he missed a meeting, there’s a lot to do (like catch up on what actually happened during the meeting). He’s about halfway through reading the minutes when Woohyun returns, this time with Sunggyu in tow. He pales.

Woohyun elbows Sunggyu, and Jinhwan’s not sure whether to be terrified or confused. He settles for an uncomfortable mix of both.

“Jinhwan,” Sunggyu starts. He doesn’t sound angry, but he does sound like he’d rather not be doing whatever it is he’s doing right now. “I’m sorry for my outburst earlier. It was an honest mistake on your part, and you didn’t deserve to hear everything I said to you.”

Next to him, Woohyun smiles. Jinhwan stares at the two of them and at the scowl on Sunggyu’s face before replying, “Thank you, sir.”

Woohyun lets out a laugh. “I can’t believe people actually call you sir.”

Sunggyu’s frown deepens, and he stalks back to his office, leaving Woohyun and Jinhwan by themselves again.

“How the hell did you manage that?”

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you all the details,” Woohyun replies. “But I will say that being married for almost five years helps.”

Jinhwan’s mouth drops open as he registers what Woohyun’s saying. _This_ is who Sunggyu’s married to?

Woohyun politely ignores Jinhwan’s less than polite reaction, “It was nice meeting you, Jinhwan. Keep your head up.”

And with that, he leaves.

 

 

 

**four**

“Have a nice weekend, Soojung!”

“Thank you, Howon! I’ll see you on Monday.”

Soojung sighs. No matter how many times she talks to Howon, he still greets her the same as any other company member. She’d even left later than usual tonight, despite in being a Friday, in hopes of catching him at the end of his shift, but he still seems glued to his seat.

Still, at least she has dinner with her sister to look forward to. She hasn’t seen Sooyeon in almost a month.

She takes the train home because she’s running a little late, and it’s faster. The restaurant they’d agreed to meet at is on the fancier side, so her work clothes should be fine, but she still wants to touch up her make up and drop off stuff from work instead of going straight there.

Sooyeon is there before her anyway, but she doesn’t seem to have been waiting long.

“Soojung! Hey!”

“Hi, Sooyeon!”

They hug for a while after that; it’s been longer than usual since their last reunion, and even after several years it’s strange for them to go so long without seeing each other after being so close growing up.

Once they’re seated, they fill each other in on their lives, a healthy amount of sibling shenanigans thrown into the conversation.

(“I swear my landlord hates me for some reason; it’s like he’s looking for an excuse to evict me.”

“Probably because you hog all the hot water.”

“Well at least I’ve never caused a power surge that blacked out our whole building.”

“That was  _one time_ , Soojung.”)

Over the meal they talk mostly about Sooyeon’s job; what she does for a living is actually really interesting, and Soojung sometimes wonders how her somewhat boring sister ended up with such a cool occupation.

She’s a props maker.

Apparently her latest job involves making some sort of animatronic fish. A lot of the technical jargon goes over Soojung’s head, but at least it’s better than talking about that zombie film she worked on (luckily they hadn’t discussed that one over dinner).

By the time Sooyeon’s done explaining why plexiglass is the bane of her existence, they’ve finished their meals.

“So, how’s your job?” she asks. “Fill me in on the office gossip.”

Soojung sighs, but really she loves talking about her friends at work. “I wish I could tell you something’s changed, but really it’s the same,” she says. “Sunggyu’s still impossible, Howon still hasn’t noticed me, you know. Jiyeon’s friend in HR has something going on, but I don’t really know anything about it. If I did I’d give you more details.”

Sooyeon usually enjoys hearing the gossip as much as Soojung enjoys delivering it, but this time she ignores most of what her sister says. “I still think you should properly introduce me to your boss. I barely got to talk to him at that fundraiser last year.”

“He’s married! Don’t be a homewrecker.”

“Didn’t you say he was divorced?”

“It was just a guess! For all I know, he and his wife could be very happy together.”

Sooyeon opens her mouth to say something, but then freezes, her eyes drawn to the entrance of the restaurant. “His wife?”

“Well, Sungyeol thinks he’s got a husband, but I think he’s the only one—”

“Soojung!” Sooyeon whispers urgently. “Shut up and turn around, but don’t be obvious.”

And speak of the devil, when Soojung turns around (not very subtly—Sooyeon kicks her in the shin), Sunggyu is standing inside the restaurant, another man by his side.

“Do you think that’s his—”

“Shh!” Soojung cuts her off, eyes following her boss and his companion. The other man isn’t necessarily Sunggyu’s elusive spouse; for all she knows, he could be Sunggyu’s brother. After all, her and Sooyeon are eating at this restaurant together, too. But then he brushes a hand against Sunggyu’s waist and drops a light kiss to his shoulder as he passes him to move to the other side of their table, and Soojung thinks that they’re probably not brothers.

“Oh my god.”

“I can’t believe it.”

“He actually has a husband!”

“No, not that—” Well yes, that’s a little surprising, too, but what Soojung’s really surprised by is that, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sunggyu laugh.”

“Really?” Sooyeon asks.

It’s not entirely true; Soojung has seen Sunggyu smile and laugh politely at meetings and fundraisers before, but it’s never been for anything other than business. Now, though, sitting across from his husband, his eyes disappear into happy crescents and his smile stretches so wide that Soojung can see his gold tooth. He doesn’t look anything like the scary boss she’s used to.

“There’s no way I’m getting in the middle of that,” sighs Sooyeon, putting her card back in her wallet. Now that they’ve finished eating and paying, there’s nothing keeping them here besides spying on the couple, so they leave the restaurant and part ways, promising to see each other soon.

Soojung goes back to her apartment to mull over what she’s seen, think about how to face Sunggyu on Monday, and try to remember what the name of the movie Sooyeon said she was working on was.

 

 

 

**five**

Sungyeol closes the supply cupboard with a bang. The one time when he is actually willing to refill his own goddamn stapler, and there are no staples. He’ll just have to steal Jiyeon’s. Although, while he’s here, he might as well make himself some coffee, even if it is doesn’t taste nearly as good as the stuff from the cafe down the street.

He’s waiting for the coffee machine to do its thing when someone else enters the break room. This isn’t an unusual occurrence, but usually the room is only used by people from their department, not people that Sungyeol has never seen before.

And Sungyeol knows he’s never seen this guy before, because he definitely would have remembered him; he’s on the shorter side, but his arms seem to have some muscle on them, and his face is nicely shaped.

He’s attractive.

“Hey.”

The hot guy smiles at him. “Hello,” he says, before giving Sungyeol a once over. “You are a very tall man.”

Normally Sungyeol thinks people find his height attractive, but something about the way hot guy says it makes him think something else is going on. He’s not sure what, though, so he just says “I know.”

“Is there tea in here?”

Sungyeol gestures to one of the cabinets, and not so subtly checks out hot guy’s ass as he stretches to reach the tea bags. Hot guy turns around and Sungyeol’s about to say something, but Jinhwan walks in before anything gets out.

“Oh, hey, Woohyun.”

_Jinhwan knows this guy?_

“Jinhwan! How are you?”

“Pretty good. Better than I was last time we talked.”

Hot guy—Woohyun, apparently—laughs and turns on the electric kettle. “I’d hope so.”

Sungyeol’s more than a little confused as to how Jinhwan knows this guy, so he butts in. “You two know each other?”

“Yeah,” Jinhwan replies. “We met last week; Woohyun is—”

“A friend! I’m just visiting,” Woohyun interjects. The electric kettle beeps and Woohyun busies himself with pouring the hot water over the teabag.

“You’re visiting Jinhwan? But he seemed surprised to see you.”

“He’s probably—”

Woohyun interrupts Jinhwan again. “I actually know a lot of the people in the department; I’ve come by a few times now.” He picks up the tea and heads towards the door. “It was nice to meet you! See you later, Jinhwan!” And then he’s gone.

Sungyeol takes a few moments to digest the weirdness that just happened before speaking.

“Well, that was weird.”

“Sungyeol,” Jinhwan says quietly. “Do you know who that is?”

“No. Should I?”

“That’s Sunggyu’s husband!”

“What? Really?”

Jinhwan nods. “He got Sunggyu to apologize to me the other day; I’ve never seen anything like it.”

As odd as it is to imagine Sunggyu apologizing to someone, it’s even stranger to imagine that he’s landed someone as hot as Woohyun. Still, it’s nice to have his suspicions about Sunggyu’s spouse confirmed; he’s totally getting those twenty bucks from Dasom.

(Unless Sunggyu kills him first for staring at his husband’s ass, _oh god_ —)

 

 

 

**and one**

“You really need to be nicer to your employees.”

Sunggyu grunts. “I’m their boss, not their friend.”

They’re in bed, about to go to sleep, and Sunggyu would really like to avoid this conversation; Woohyun’s been bugging him about his work demeanor ever since he started visiting him at the office. As nice as it is to see Woohyun during the day, he could do without the reprimanding.

“Just because you’re their boss doesn’t mean they have to be terrified of you. You made Jinhwan cry!”

“I apologized, didn’t I?”

“Only after I came in and yelled at you.”

Sunggyu can’t really argue with that because it’s true, so he just pouts.

Woohyun continues. “Just because you all work together doesn’t mean you can’t be friendly with each other. Everyone I’ve met has seemed very nice.” He pauses. “Except Dasom. I might be a little scared of her.”

“She has a competitive streak. It comes in handy sometimes, but it can also distract her from work.”

Woohyun hums in acknowledgement and starts rubbing slow circles on Sunggyu’s back. It’s a gesture usually saved for especially stressful days, but for some reason Woohyun seems to be in an extra affectionate mood tonight. Sunggyu’s not going to complain, though; instead he turns over to give Woohyun better access. But apparently they’re not done talking.

“You know,” muses Woohyun, “A lot of your coworkers seemed really surprised to see me.”

“Really?” Sunggyu is starting to drift off.

“Yeah, they seemed to think you had too much of a stick up your ass to be anyone’s husband.”

Sunggyu forces his eyes open at the realization that he’s being insulted, but Woohyun continues before he can say anything.

“Luckily, I am more than willing to replace that stick with—”

“Don’t you dare say what I think you’re going to say.” He turns around again to see Woohyun grinning.

“Is that a no?”

“Woohyun, if you want to have sex, just say so. You don’t have to make crude jokes involving my coworkers.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Oh my god.”

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed! come say hi on [tumblr](https://nimh5.tumblr.com/) :)


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